Tag: Faith

Good News

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Lobster fisherman

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.  And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matt. (9:10-13)

A Modern Parable

 

Leaps of Faith

We are like children groping in a vast, dark room discovering and piecing things together the best that we can.

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Certain “aha moments” stick with me and are a continual point of reference in my life. Many of them happened, not unsurprisingly, when I was in college – a time when I was searching and open to learning.

For some background, I went to a small liberal arts college where a premium was attached to reading and writing. Philosophical discussions were not uncommon over food and drink. Professors would commonly gather in spirited debate in the one (and only) fast food joint on the campus as the students. I loved the academic atmosphere.

One ongoing debate among students was who was the smartest professor on campus. The debate came to an end one day when one of the favorites (a professor who taught Latin, Greek and Logic) took his own life one night. The scuttlebutt was that he came to the dire conclusion that God does not exist, and he ended his life.

The other professor who was most often championed as “smartest” when was one of the two religion professors on campus. He was enamored with Liberation Theology (the thought that God was maturing and changing with His creation, among other things) and otherwise had an “all roads lead to the top of the same mountain” view on religion.

His counterpart was Jewish. At the same time, one of the more popular professors (among the intelligentsia on campus) was an undeniable guru of Western Civilization. His Western Civilization classes were staples of the curriculum. Though there was plenty of partying and “normal” college life, my college was a cloistered incubator of discovery for anyone eager to learn.

The Western Civ prof (harkening back to college speak) gave a popular series of lectures in the evening (popular, at least, for the people more interested in political parties than dorm parties). These lectures were voluntary, but well attended. His lectures featured the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and the connection between science and faith.

His lectures were popular, I believe, because they propped up faith for the “smart” college student who grew up believing in God who was suddenly facing the disdain of the academic community. The overwhelmingly predominant worldview on college campuses in those days, and more so now, is anything but a worldview with God as the central figure.

This professor reasoned in these lectures that empirical, scientific evidence, reason and logic leads a person inevitably up to the steps of heaven to the door of faith. (The metaphor is mine.) He was arguing against the notion that faith requires a “leap” – a disconnect from the more “objective” grounding of science, reason, and logic.

I wondered, then, whether he was right. My intuition suggested otherwise, but I didn’t know quite why. I have been thinking about his premise ever since, and I have a better grasp on the reasons why I believe his premise isn’t true than I did in college.

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In the Beginning Was the Word

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Open Bible on ground“In the beginning was the Word….” (John 1:1) 

As a lover of words, this statement opening the Gospel of John has always fascinated me.

“In the beginning” obviously refers to something other than the “Word”, as the Word already existed “in the beginning”.

The phrase, “in the beginning” is a time reference. If the Word already existed in the beginning, the Word existed before the beginning, and that makes the Word timeless.

John also tells us in the beginning “the Word was with God”. (John 1:1) The Word existed with God before time. Language, communication existed before the creation. The nonmaterial “things” that comprise language and communication are, therefore, preeminent, existing before material things, and therefore more lasting than this material world in which we live.

Genesis 3:1 describes how God created the world:

“And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”

In that statement and in each subsequent statement, all the various components of the creation are prefaced with words, “God said“. In other words (pun intended), God spoke to create the world we know, and it was created through his Word. These themes are continued in the Gospel of John.

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One of My First Light Bulb Moments

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Lake Michigan Sunrise Horizon

I do not believe that God has left us like a watchmaker to flounder on our own in our finite imperfection. I find God to be intimate and personal, though He once seemed distant and unknowable to me.

I studied the five major world religions before I became a “believer” in Jesus Christ. I approached all the other world religions first, thinking that I already knew what Christianity had to offer. When I finally got to Christianity and began to read the scriptural text, as I had done with the other world religions, I had one of my first light bulb moments.

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